Legacy has many reports to chose from and they are very customizable so that you can create exactly what you need. On the main Reports toolbar you will see the most common reports.

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If you click the little down arrow next to Chart Reports you will see this.

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And here are the "Other" reports.

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We can't go over all of the different types of reports so you will need to do some sleuthing on your own. What I want to do is show you one of the common reports and some things you need to know that will carry over to all of the different reports. We are going to look at the Descendant Narrative Book Report.

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When you first open this report you will see this.

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The biggest mistake users make with reports is not realizing just how many options there are. When you first open the report you will see that there are five tabs of options at the top, options in the middle part of the screen, printer options over on the the right, Index Options, Report Options, and Title Page options buttons at the bottom. Also, users over look the CHANGE button at the bottom where you can change your anchor person. Over on the right is where you will select your type of output and at the bottom right you can save all of your settings so that you can use them again without having to select them (you can save multiple sets of settings). You can then Load the settings you have saved. You can Reset the report to your user defaults or the Legacy defaults. Make sure that you click every one of the tabs and buttons. But we are nowhere near done with the options! If you click the Report Options button at the bottom you will see this.

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Notice that there are five more tabs of options here AND the tabs have additional buttons for more options (like the Event Options button that you see in the screenshot). Over on the right you see Privacy Options, Page Setup and Report Fonts.

Once you have all of your options set like you want, over on the main report screen you will will see a very important button, the Preview. You can preview your report as you change the options until you get it just like you want before printing or sending it to a file.

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When you look at the report options, you will see that some items are greyed out. That means that that option isn't available for that specific report. All of the book style reports have the same screens as the Descendant Narrative Book Report and all of the Chart style reports have the same screens. The other reports are for totally different things so their report options screens are specific to each report.

You will also see the Publishing Center on the main Reports toolbar. I am only going to mention this briefly.

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If you open the Publishing Center you will see that it is set up similarly to a report with a lot of tabs and buttons full of options. I want to point out the options that users seem to overlook. You can change your focus person for a particular chapter, you can edit the report options for a specific chapter, and you can reorder the chapters by using the arrow buttons.

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A lot of users think that the Publishing Center is only for full length books and that is not the case at all. You can use the Publishing Center to combine one or more reports into a single cohesive report. For example, you could create a Pedigree Chart and then add Family Group Sheets for each couple on the chart or you could create a Descendant Book Report and add a Picture Scrapbook so that all of your photos are included.

There are actually some additional reports that aren't on the main report menu because they are tied to other features. For example, if you go to Tools > Relationship you will find the Relationship Chart Report there. You can't run this report until you calculate the relationship between two people.

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Another report that you need to watch out for is the Relationship Report.

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You will not be able to run this report until you have actually set the relationships at Tools > Set Relationships.

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I don't think you will find any other program that has this many reports and customizations.

For video tech tips check out the Legacy Quick Tips page. These short videos will make it easy for you to learn all sort of fun and interesting ways to look at your genealogy research.

Michele Simmons Lewis, CG® is part of the Legacy Family Tree team at MyHeritage. She handles the enhancement suggestions that come in from our users as well as writing for Legacy News. You can usually find her hanging out on the Legacy User Group Facebook page answering questions and posting tips.